Category: Competitive Games

Black Forest

| OTSG Staff

In Black Forest, you start out with a small domain in need of new buildings and livestock. You’ll travel from village to village, to enlist the aid of the best specialists. Exploiting the abilities of these specialists lets you collect resources, lay out new landscape tiles (e.g. ponds and fields), and build a variety of buildings, which come in four types. Choose the right buildings, place landscapes, fire up your glass production, and expand your domain.

Uwe Rosenberg’s resource wheels, made famous in Glass Road (2013), return in Black Forest. Two resource wheels on your tableau help you keep track of your resources and production. Black Forest continues the story – as the name suggests — in the Black Forest. Among others, the main difference between the two games is the use of worker placement in Black Forest instead of simultaneous action selection.

A wide selection of buildings and their different effects offer many different paths to victory.

Game Mechanics:

  • Set Collection
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Tile Placement
  • Variable Set-up
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.23

Biohack

| OTSG Staff

Dr. Johann Maischberger caused a stir in the scientific academia for playing god with his experiments. The young researchers involved in his experiments were all expelled from the academia due to this unethical work.
This incident was known as the “Biohack Incident.”

And then, twenty years later.

Dr. Maischberger’s daughter is trying to bring back the experiment back to life once again. However, the blueprints left behind by her father were incomprehensible to ordinary people. Thus, they called upon the “mad scientists,” namely those who were expelled from the academia.

Biohack is a medium-complexity game for 1-4 players. Each players will use workers called “Noman” to procure funds and DNAs, then create new creatures. The scientists, who are the players’ avatars, have various abilities. In addition, the creatures created by the experiments will also bring various beneficial effects. The game ends after the designated number of rounds or if a player able to creates 7 creatures. The players will tally all of their Evaluation Points and the player who has the most Evaluation Points wins the game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.73

Beyond the Horizon

| OTSG Staff

Beyond the Horizon is a civilization game in which players compete to become the most influential society in history through exploration and expansion, development and production, research and technological advancement.

The game is played over a variable number of rounds until enough goals have been achieved to signal the end of the game. Along the way, players will earn points for exploring new lands, settling and building new cities, advancing technologically, and increasing their cultural and economic development. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.42

Atlantis Exodus

| OTSG Staff

The legendary Atlantis is shrouded in so many stories and myths, an island realm that was reputed to have completely drowned in only one night.

Atlantis Exodus presents the player kings with the challenge of rescuing as many citizens as possible before the impending downfall and, by doing so, saving the knowledge they have acquired for a different world and time.

Thanks to an innovative rotation mechanism, 1-4 kings have to face constantly changing conditions and keep adjusting their own strategy to the different action possibilities in order to ultimately become the savior of the achievements of their time.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.24

Bamboo

| OTSG Staff

For generations, harvesting bamboo has brought prosperity to your home. Work, perseverance, balance and prayer have made a small town flourish that has grown at the expense of the cane fields. Today, various clans live in harmony with nature.

In Bamboo, players take on the role of clans that grow bamboo and use the fruits of their labor to take care of their family and thus add happiness points. This is an action management and tile optimization game that is both accessible and deep. With a very careful setting, Bamboo is part of the Kemushi saga, to which Bitoku and Silk also belong.

Bamboo games are made up of 4 years or rounds, which in turn are divided into 4 phases or seasons. On their turns, players will burn incense in temples to seek favor from the spirits, and use bamboo shoots to perform actions such as seeking balance, cooking, home improvement, or managing finances.

Following the doctrines of the home balance discipline allows for better optimization of home tiles, making it a fundamental pillar for progressing through the game. To score balance tiles you must use the balance action and follow the pattern indicated on the tile, which always has something to do with the type of home tiles you get during the game. There are four classes of home tiles: decoration, garden, faith, or useful. Depending on how they place them on their board, players will earn happiness points.

In addition to managing the household, players will need to prepare for when tough times come. To get through the winter, it will be necessary to feed the family members with the tea, rice or ramen that has been prepared and stored in the previous season. And all this without forgetting to honor spirits and ancestors in the temples. The player who has made the largest offering of incense in each sacred space will receive the favor of one of the seven spirits of the forest, as a token of thanks. Spirit tiles, in addition to helping players throughout the game, offer bonus points in the final phase based on the number of different spirits in each player’s play area.

With accessible and easy-to-learn rules, Bamboo is a very versatile title that will fit into any shelves. However, behind its apparent simplicity lies great strategic depth, with plenty of options available to players. In addition, Bamboo has an advanced game mode on the back of the personal boards, which will give the games an extra level of demand. Harvest bamboo and find balance in your home to win the game. May the spirits be with you!

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 110 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.89

Arcs

| OTSG Staff

Arcs is a sharp, tactical space opera game, for 2–4 players, set in a dark yet silly universe. Players represent officials from a distant, decaying and neglectful Empire who are now free to vie for dominance whether through battle, gathering scarce resources or diplomatic intrigue. Ready yourself for dramatic twists and turns as you launch into this galactic struggle.

A deck of cards in 4 suits with ranks from 1-7 (2-6 for less than 4 players) defines the action selection system. These cards are played in a trick-taking adjacent system to select actions, take the initiative and declare Ambitions. The 3 declared Ambitions are what will score in that deal. Timing is everything. Bad hands must be mitigated by careful card play and benefitting from other players’ card play.

Battles are resolved quickly with the attacker choosing their level of risk. The defenders must be prepared with adequate defensive ships and cards in their tableau.

Each game contains a hundred wooden ships and agents, 18 custom engraved dice, a beautiful six-panel board, and tons of cards with over 60 pieces of unique art. The base game may be played without the optional Leaders and Lore cards (for an easier teach) or with them for a richer, fuller and asymmetric game. It is also the core of the campaign game (requiring the Blighted Reach Expansion), which provides an epic, more thematic experience.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.40

Apiary 🟡

| OTSG Staff

In a far-distant future, humans no longer inhabit Earth. The cause of their disappearance (or perhaps their demise) is unknown, but their absence left a void ready to be filled by another sentient species.

Over the span of untold generations, one species of the humble honeybee evolved to fill that void. They grew in size and intelligence to become a highly advanced society. They call themselves Mellifera, and they have made substantial technological advances in addition to the technology they adapted from human ruins, up to and including space travel.

In Apiary, each player controls one of twenty unique factions. Your faction starts the game with a hive, a few resources, and worker bees. A worker-placement, hive-building challenge awaits you: explore planets, gather resources, develop technologies, and create carvings to demonstrate your faction’s strengths (measured in victory points) over one year’s Flow. However, the Dearth quickly approaches, and your workers can take only a few actions before they must hibernate! Can you thrive or merely survive?

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.97

Altiplano 🟡

| OTSG Staff

Altiplano is a bag-building game along the lines of Orléans, set in the South American highlands of the Andes (the “Altiplano”). The competition for limited resources is considerable, as it was in Orléans, but the greater focus in Altiplano is on building up your own production to be the best that it can be – or at least better than that of the other players!

The object of the game is for players to use their goods to produce more goods that will be worth points in the end. Each player starts with a unique role tile, giving them access to different goods and methods of production. Players have limited access to production at the start, but they can acquire additional production sites during the game that open up new options. The various types of goods — such as fish, alpaca, cacao, silver and corn — all have their own characteristics and places where they can be used. For example, silver can be sold for a high price at the market, fish can be exchanged for other goods at the harbor and alpaca can produce wool at the farm that can then be made into cloth.

Aside from building up an effective production, players must fulfill their orders at the right time, develop the road in good time and store their goods cleverly enough to fill their warehouses in the most valuable way. Often, a good warehouse keeper is more relevant in the end than the best producer.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.29

Age of Innovation 🔴

| kithorning

Age of Innovation is a standalone game set in the world of Terra Mystica.

Twelve factions, each with unique characteristics, populate this world of varying terrains. Here you will compete to erect buildings and merge them into cities. Each game allows you to create new combinations of factions, homelands, and abilities so that each game isn’t the same as another.

You control one of these factions and will terraform the game map’s terrain into your homelands where you can erect your buildings. Proximity to other factions may limit your expansion, but it also gains you significant advantages in the game. This tension adds to the appeal of the Terra Mystica series.

Upgrade your buildings to gain valuable resources such as tools, scholars, money, and power. Build schools to advance in different sciences and collect books, which you can use to make innovations. Build your palace to gain a powerful new ability or build workshops, guilds, and universities to complete your culture.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 40 -200 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.26

Earth

| OTSG Staff

Earth is a tableau builder with simple rules and countless strategic possibilities. With its encyclopedic nature and a near-infinite number of tableau combinations, every single game will allow you to discover new synergies and connections, just as our vast and fascinating world allows us to do!

It’s time to jump into these rich environments and create some amazing natural synergies that replicate and extrapolate on Earth’s amazing versatility and plethora of natural resources. Over thousands of years of evolution and adaptation the flora and fauna of this unique planet have grown and developed into amazing life forms, creating symbiotic ecosystems and habitats.

Players create a self-supporting engine of growth, expansion and supply where even your unused plants become compost for future growth. They use their cards to choose actions (which affect all players) and gain resources. The first player to complete their Tableau triggers the end of the game. The player with the most points wins.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 45 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.91